Showing posts with label The Word Of God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Word Of God. Show all posts

The Word Refutes Negativity

The Word of God refutes negativity, stubbornness and fear in us. It's blunt statements correct our thinking. No matter what we are experiencing, the Scriptures direct us on how to think about it. 

We judge God by what we understand through our flesh and challenged minds. The Holy Bible says it will give us understanding because we are simple-minded (Psalm 119:130). We are not simple-minded in a child-like way but in a rebellious, anxiety-ridden and faithless way. 

The Word of God is all-encompassing. Until we leave this world, whenever and however that occurs, it will continue to tell us that all things are possible to whomever can and will believe (Mark 9:23). 

Despite our challenges, barriers, hindrances and handicaps, the Holy Scriptures insist that we can see miracles with faith the size of a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20). That's why when we faithfully put that Word inside of us everyday, we notice over time that we are changing. We are thinking more positively. We feel more hopeful. We believe more. (Romans 12:2) It's the power of The Living Word. 

You don't think that God heals and will heal you? You don't feel that God prospers and will prosper you? You don't believe that God hears you and is making a difference in your life? The Word refutes that. It says the same thing, over and over and over again. 

It says that this is the type of trust that we can put in him, that if we ask anything according to HIS will he hears us. And if we believe that he has heard us, then we know that we have what we have asked him for, (I John 5:14-15) because we asked according to HIS will. Cut and dried. Plain and simple. No ifs, ands or buts.

It does not matter what did not happen for Christians that you know. It does not matter what hasn't happened for you. The Word of God refutes negativity, stubbornness and fear in us. Its message is consistent and unrelenting. The promises in the Word elevate us. The Scriptures lift us to a higher level of thinking and living, closer to and more like Our Father and what he wants for us. 

 


Listen To The Holy Spirit & The Bible

This morning at the Lakewood Church service, Lisa Osteen Comes said: 

If you don't know The Word, Satan will use that against you!

Many of the answers that you are seeking are in the Bible. Just open it up when you feel discouraged.

When I open up the Bible each morning, I feel like I am sitting with Jesus.

I feel that the Bible is the closest thing that we have to God on earth. I know we have the Holy Spirit and He is the presence of God in us. I can feel him but I can't touch him. I can touch the Bible.

Fall in love with the Bible. It will change your life. As you read, the Holy Spirit will help you to understand. Get a version that is easier for you to understand. The Holy Spirit will give you spiritual wisdom and insight.

What the Holy Spirit hears from the Father he will transmit to us. We sense the answer in our spirits and it's registered in our minds. Like a thought, something we need to know, something to pray for or an answer to a prayer. It's like an impression that you can't get away from and that you know did not come from you. A still, small voice.

The Apostle Paul describes God's voice as a perception. Everyone was saved on the ship during a hurricane because Paul listened.

Philip, the disciple, heard the voice of The Spirit that sent him to help the Ethiopian man in the chariot. Because Philip listened, he was able to explain the Gospel to him and he was saved and chose to be baptized on the spot.  

God's plans are higher than our plans. There were many times that God interrupted my plans and the outcome was much better than I could ever have imagined.

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God's Way Of Doing Things

God's way of doing things is the very best way. We can only learn what his way is by seeking his face everyday. We have to spend time with him in the ways that are available to us. We need to be consistent and persistent. How do we seek his face and learn his ways? We read his Word, The Holy Bible, everyday and we talk to him everyday.

Before we read the scriptures, we ask Our Father to illuminate his scriptures for us. To give us revelation knowledge through his Word. We ask for the ability to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We thank him for breaking up the stony ground of our hearts so that his Word can enter in, take root and bear much fruit. We thank him for transforming us through his Word and helping us to rightly divide it. We ask him to give us discernment of his Word so that we can apply it to our lives in a practical way. We confess that we want to see circumstances and people in the way that he sees them. Most of all, we thank him for helping us to see our lives and ourselves in the way that he sees us. We make sure that we open the Bible every day and read something, no matter how much or how little.

The second way to seek God's face is to meet with him and talk with him everyday. There are 3 types of prayer that will help us to understand God's way of doing things, formal prayer to God, conversation with God and listening to God in quiet time. Formal prayer is when we have a format in which we pray. It is a rotating combination of words, phrases, scriptures and favorite statements that we give to God at a specific time of day. This is the prayer that we pray each day, such as in the morning when we commit our way to him before we face the world. 

 

Though it consists of our favorite format, it shouldn't be repetitive, traditional or ritualistic. The word tells us that our traditions and rituals make his word of no effect. (Mark 7:13)  The most important use of the formatted prayer is in committing our path to God at the beginning of each day. Our formatted prayers are not enough to learn God's way of doing things because they consist mostly of us talking. While commitment and statements of confession are very important to our growth, there is a more important way of seeking God's face.

We need to have conversations with God throughout the day. This is when we talk to him candidly and openly. We revere him as Our Heavenly Father but we talk to him as a friend. If you want to pray and talk to Jesus, that is ok because Jesus is God also. For me, I find that praying and talking to God works better. I also talk to Jesus and thank him for many things. Because God is the one who sent Jesus to shed his blood and have his body broken for us and who raised Jesus from the dead, who cares for me and has numbered the hairs of my head, and is my only Heavenly Father, spending time with him and committing all to him works best for me. 

Jesus is Heir To The Throne and I am joint heirs with him. I will rule and reign with him and without him I can do nothing, so my relationship with The Lamb of God is just as important, but different. It is God's Holy Spirit that bore upon me so that I could accept Jesus as my Savior and it is God The Father who holds the time of Jesus' return. The most important things about my existence and origin I can attribute to God but not to Jesus. It is through Jesus' obedient sacrifice that I am able to seek God's face but God sent Jesus so that I could be restored to fellowship with him, God The Father. (I Peter 1:21)

When we have conversations with God throughout the day we should simply tell him our feelings, our hopes, our confusions our angers. Yes, he knows our thoughts, our hearts, but building a relationship means that we need to tell him about our lives. Our father wants to commune with us, laugh with us, cry with us, share with us. Many of us don't know how it is to have a real father, so we have to learn, to practice having a true, pure, holy relationship with God. 

We've seen TV programs and movies where fathers were loving and kind. We can take cues from them on how to cultivate a loving, sharing relationship with Our Father. It's just a matter of pretending that he's there, imagining him listening, seeing in our minds' eye him nodding his head, choosing to believe that he's answering and conversing. As we reach out he will help us and make it real to us. Before long, we'll look forward to sharing with him day and night. 

The third type of prayer is to be quiet and just listen for the still, small voice of God's Spirit to talk to us. For me, this is the hardest. It's difficult to quiet the mind talk. To not be distracted. I try to sit somewhere quiet, where I can look at the sky if I can. I have chosen to sit 15 minutes each day and just listen for God's voice. Very few people would hear him in the beginning of the process. It takes time, patience and commitment. It takes time to be able to truly quiet our minds. Don't worry if you don't hear anything for a long time. The most important thing is to have this quiet time before God as often as you can and to stick with it. The reward will come. Our Father is faithful!

Seeking God's face to learn his ways makes all the difference in appropriating and manifesting his promises that we find in The Bible. It's one thing to be saved. It's another to live in the fullness of God. Getting closer to him and sharing with him is a peaceful place, not only to learn his personality, but for restoration. We begin to recognize his ways of doing things in our lives and can work with him, not against him. We enjoy going to a place where we can bare all, be exactly who we are and know that we are loved deeply, no matter what. 



His Love Letters To You


God's Word puts faith in me. If you're not reading God's Word, the Holy Bible, everyday you're cheating yourself. My question is Have you come to truly love God? You see, God's Word is really a love letter. It is a letter from The Greatest Lover to you, the person whom He loves dearly.

Everything in the Bible is not a good story, even though the entire Bible is ordained by God to bless you. Every word in the Bible can benefit us when accepted through the Holy Spirit's guidance.

In the same way that you would read and reread the letters from your fiance/fiancee, companion or spouse, you should be reading God's Word. It should be sweet to you and you should never tire of learning from it. Even though you may not feel like reading as much or at all on some days, you should be anxious to get back to it.

So again, Have you come to truly love God enough to desire to read his Word everyday? You should be feeding yourself the one thing that will grow your faith, strengthen you against the enemy and help you to store up your riches in Heaven.

The Word of God is quick and powerful... Hebrews 4:12

Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, And you have overcome the wicked one...I John 2:14
 

Dear Lord:
I pray for this reader to receive a hunger and thirst
for the nourishment that can come only
through your Word.
Amen